Kinship

If a child is not able to live at home, we seek extended family so children and youth can live safely with people they know and with whom they are comfortable. When children and youth are cared for by members of their extended family, kin, a family friend, or someone in their community, this is referred to as a kinship arrangement.

Kinship arrangements support children and youth to maintain connection to their family and heritage, help them remain in their community, support their identity, and help them maintain their ethnicity, culture, and family traditions. Kinship can include any member of a child’s community with whom the child has an established relationship. It doesn’t need to be a direct relative.

Kinship arrangements can either be ‘in care’ of a Children’s Aid Society or ‘out of care.’

Children’s Aid Societies have been diligently working for several years to reduce the number of children coming into care. Increasing our efforts to work with extended family and kin to care for children supports our efforts to reduce the number of children in care.

Once potential caregivers have been found, they are assessed to understand their ability to meet the needs of a child, in the interim or long term if needed. The goal is to reconnect the child with their parents as quickly as possible, but the hope is that if the child cannot return to their biological parents, the kinship caregiver/family will be a permanent home for the child.

Kinship caregivers receive a support worker from Durham CAS to support the family and support the children living in their home. Kinship service families may be eligible for Temporary Care Assistance through Ontario Works and some support from Durham CAS.